Thursday, October 12, 2006

There was snow on the ground this morning. Snow. And it’s the middle of October. I suppose this shouldn’t surprise me, since autumn in Wisconsin can be full of weird weather, and I guess snow in October isn’t really that foreign after all. I was more than ready for fall—I love the changing leaves and the crisp, fresh air and all of the fun fall activities. I was not ready to see snow on the ground (even though the weather people have been prognosticating about it for days) when I left my apartment this morning. Snow symbolizes the rapid descent into winter, the season of scurrying from building to car to building to avoid the cold and sunsets at 4:30 in the afternoon. The thought of six months of this after just having a wonderful summer was just about enough to suffocate me. I mean, there’s a WIND CHILL FACTOR this morning—the temperature outside is 28 degrees, but it feels like it’s 19!

But, instead of mope about it, I decided to embrace it. Grace was glancing curiously around at this “new” white substance on the ground, and since I have learned that seeing things through her eyes puts a new spin on things for me, I decided to do just that. We ran over to a small patch of snow on the grass and rubbed the snow all over our hands, and Gracie squealed with delight. We talked about sledding, making snowmen, and sliding around on the ice. She had lots and lots to say about this discovery. She may turn me into a winter fan after all.